Saving Seafood

Gulf’s first two zones for offshore wind farms selected off Louisiana, Texas

November 1, 2022 — The federal government has selected the first two areas for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the way for a process that could have windmills spinning over the waves near Louisiana by the decade’s end.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Monday finalized the boundaries for the two zones: a 174,000-acre area south of Lake Charles and a 508,000-acre area near Galveston, Texas.

The two areas have the potential to generate enough power for almost 3 million homes, according to BOEM. That’s enough electricity for the combined populations of Houston, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The commercial leasing process for the two areas is expected to begin by the middle of next year. After a multi-year site assessment, survey process and environmental review, offshore wind developers could begin installing turbines before 2030.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, said BOEM’s site selection is an “important first step” toward a stronger economy and cleaner energy for the Gulf region.

“Offshore wind is a key component to achieving our nation’s clean energy goals to lower costs and cut pollution, while creating good jobs for Americans,” he said.

Read the full article at nola.com

Feds unveil plan to grow wind power while sparing rare whale

October 31, 2022 — The federal government has outlined a strategy to try to protect an endangered species of whale while also developing offshore wind power off the East Coast.

President Joe Biden’s administration has made a priority of encouraging offshore wind along the Atlantic coast as the U.S. pursues greater energy independence. Those waters are also home to the declining North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 340 in the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a draft plan this month to conserve the whales while allowing for the building of wind projects. The agencies said the ongoing efforts to save the whales and create more renewable energy can coexist.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

U.S. agencies propose to protect whales while building wind power

October 26, 2022 — Federal agencies have put out a new plan to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whales, as the government promotes aggressive development of offshore wind energy projects.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Marine Fisheries Service released their joint strategy  Oct. 21 “to protect and promote the recovery of North Atlantic right whales while responsibly developing offshore wind energy.”

The announcement initiated a 45-day public review and comment period on the draft strategy. Comments on the guidance can be submitted online via regulations.gov from October 21 to December 4, under Docket Number BOEM-2022-0066.

The plan comes out amid turmoil in the commercial fishing industry over NMFS plans for gear and area restrictions in the Northeast lobster fishery to reduce the danger of entanglement with whales. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is challenging the plans in federal appeals court, as NMFS looks toward potential restrictions on other East Coast fisheries that use fixed gear like fish pots and gill nets.

Meanwhile opponents of offshore wind projects have set their sights on the right whales’ predicament as a strategy to use for challenging wind developers and federal agencies in court. Activists and lawyers organized by the Heartland Institute, a frequent critic of renewable energy programs, say right whales could be key to a challenge of Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

North Atlantic Right Whale and Offshore Wind Strategy Open for Public Comment until December 4

October 25, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a joint draft strategy to protect and promote the recovery of North Atlantic right whales while responsibly developing offshore wind energy. The draft strategy is now available for public comment no later than December 4, 2022. It outlines how the agencies will collaborate and improve science and information to support the Administration’s goal of developing offshore wind while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use. The draft strategy will also provide offshore wind developers with guidance on mitigation measures that will assist them in navigating the regulatory process.

“As we face the ongoing challenges of climate change, this strategy provides a strong foundation to help us advance renewable energy while also working to protect and recover North Atlantic right whales, and the ecosystem they depend on,” said Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries and Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at NOAA. “Responsible development of renewable energy sources and protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales are priorities both agencies share.”

NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to protecting and recovering North Atlantic right whales. Their population includes fewer than 350 individuals and fewer than 70 reproductively active females and has been experiencing an Unusual Mortality Event since 2017. Climate change is affecting every aspect of right whales’ survival—changing their habitat, their migratory patterns, and the location and availability of their prey. It is even increasing their risk of becoming entangled in fishing gear or being struck by vessels.

Offshore wind development is also rapidly expanding along the Atlantic coast of the United States, especially from Massachusetts to North Carolina. North Atlantic right whales’ habitat and migration routes are primarily in Atlantic coastal waters on the continental shelf where offshore wind leases exist or are planned. Working together on this draft strategy leverages the resources and expertise of both agencies and allows the agencies. It will allow us to collect, apply, and use the best available scientific information to inform offshore wind management decisions.

“This draft strategy focuses on improving the science and integrating past, present, and future efforts related to North Atlantic right whales and offshore wind development,” said Dr. Jon Hare, the Director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center and one of the lead authors of the draft strategy. “We also identify preliminary mitigation measures related to offshore wind energy project planning, leasing, and siting, site characterization,  and unexploded ordnance surveys, construction and operation, and project-specific monitoring, and are looking for public comment on these measures and on the strategy overall.”

The draft strategy also identifies project-specific and regional preliminary monitoring measures. These mitigation measures include the types of requirements that regulatory agencies and project proponents consider for individual projects, thereby assisting offshore wind developers to navigate the permitting process. The list of measures is not comprehensive and does not supersede measures that may be required by the agencies during regulatory processes such as construction and operations plan approvals, Endangered Species Act consultations, or incidental take authorizations.

Following review of public comments, the draft strategy will be finalized. The final strategy will be a living document, periodically evaluated and updated as new information becomes available.

View the draft strategy and information on how to submit comments

The ambitious deployment of offshore wind energy is a critical component of U.S. efforts to combat the climate crisis and build a clean energy economy. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to addressing the nation’s climate crisis by deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.

BOEM is the lead federal agency responsible for offshore energy exploration and development in the United States. To date, BOEM has leased approximately 1.7 million acres in the northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. Outer Continental Shelf for offshore wind development. There are 25 active leases in the Atlantic from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras.

NOAA Fisheries works with BOEM, other federal agencies, tribes, state agencies, and stakeholders to assess how offshore wind projects affect endangered and threatened species, marine mammals, fisheries, marine habitats, and fishing communities, and protect these important resources.

Interior, NOAA ink right whale and offshore wind strategy

October 25, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries and the Interior Department released a draft strategy Friday to protect the endangered right whale amid an imminent boom of offshore wind development.

The draft lays out a plan for both agencies to engage with the public and ocean users. It also spells out several primary goals for raising wind turbines while trying to recover the whale’s population, such as prioritizing mitigation, new research and monitoring, and improving communication.

“BOEM is deeply committed to ensuring responsible offshore wind energy development while protecting and promoting the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale,” said Amanda Lefton, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a subagency of Interior.

Read the full article at E&E News

U.S. sets March date for Gulf of Mexico drilling auction

October 22, 2022 — The Biden administration on Thursday said it will hold a Gulf of Mexico drilling auction in March of next year to satisfy a requirement in the government’s new climate change law.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer all of the available unleased acreage in the Gulf outer continental shelf on March 29, it said in a sale notice posted online.

Sealed bids are due a day before the auction.

Read the full article at Reuters

As offshore wind plans grow, so does the need for transmission

October 18, 2022 — “With the amount of megawatts that we anticipate [from offshore wind] over the next decade, we need to be thinking in terms of optimizing how we are sending that electricity to where it’s needed,” says Paula García, senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “And that’s one of the pieces of the equation that I think is changing the conversation right now.”

What García is describing is the growing consensus among federal and state leaders, industry experts, and environmentalists that the U.S. should build an offshore transmission grid.

Power strips for the ocean

The idea is fairly straightforward. Rather than every individual wind farm running a cable to land, they could plug into a network of high-capacity subsea power lines that come to shore in strategic places. There are many different ways this so-called “ocean grid” could be configured, but instead of “extension cords,” think of “linked power strips.”

An ocean grid wouldn’t entirely alleviate the need for onshore upgrades, but it would reduce what’s needed. It would also require putting fewer cables in the ocean, which means fewer potential environmental impacts and conflicts with fishermen. And, experts say, building it could help boost electric reliability for all coastal states.

Offshore transmission isn’t necessarily a new idea. A little over a decade ago, Google got involved in a $5 billion effort to build an “offshore backbone” to link future mid-Atlantic wind projects. At the time, the prospects for U.S. offshore wind looked promising, but as those fizzled, so too did the backbone plan.

Since then, the idea has surfaced from time to time among industry experts, but it’s really only in the last few years that the concept has started gaining traction in the U.S.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are assessing various offshore transmission technologies and looking at what some northern European countries are doing. They’ve also held public meetings to help inform the Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study report they plan to issue next year.

Work is happening at the state and regional levels too. New Jersey is considering building its own offshore transmission network, and New York has taken the step of mandating that all offshore wind projects be “mesh ready,” meaning built with the capacity to connect to each other offshore.

Here in New England, the states are also looking to move away from the project-by-project approach and toward a planned regional “paradigm.” To this end, five out of the six states recently issued a request for information about how they can take advantage of federal dollars to plan and build some sort of offshore transmission system.

“We’ve really reached a tipping point where I think the benefits and the logic of shifting to an offshore grid are increasingly understood and agreed upon,” says Peter Shattuck, New England president for Anbaric, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in building transmission for renewable energy.

With only two large offshore wind projects fully approved, and many more in various stages of planning, “we’ve got a natural opportunity now to focus on building out the ocean grid,” he says.

Read the full article at wbur

Environmental groups tell BOEM to slow Gulf of Maine wind plan

September 21, 2022 — Several New England and national environmental groups say the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is making a mistake by moving forward to designate wind energy areas in the Gulf of Maine.

The Conservation Law Foundation and other groups asked BOEM in May to do “a comprehensive environmental review” before proceeding with outlining potential areas for wind projects. Activists are criticizing the agency, which on Aug. 19 published a “request for interest” from wind development companies.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmental Groups Decry BOEM Failure to Conduct Environmental Review Before Offshore Wind Designations in Gulf of Maine

September 20, 2022 — The following was released by the Conservation Law Foundation:

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has declined to conduct a comprehensive environmental review before designating areas for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and several partners had pushed for a full review to be done before wind areas are chosen.

“This decision epitomizes short-term thinking that will only cause problems in the long run,” said Erica Fuller, Senior Attorney at CLF. “It’s simply backwards to choose areas for offshore wind development before doing a full environmental analysis, which would ultimately save time and money if done now. It is critical to advance offshore wind to respond to the climate crisis and clean up our electric grid, but it must be done in a science-based, inclusive and transparent way.”

Considered to be one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, the Gulf of Maine plays a significant role in the culture of New England and is the foundation for a coastal economy characterized by commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, recreational boating, shipping, and tourism.

CLF was joined in this effort by 350NH, Acadia Center, Blue Ocean Society, Friends of Casco Bay, Island Institute, League of Conservation Voters, Maine Conservation Voters, Maine Audubon, Mass. Audubon, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Council of Maine, NRDC, New England Aquarium, New Hampshire Audubon, Oceana, and Surfrider Foundation.

New Bedford officials say BOEM must demand mitigation, monitoring from wind developers

September 9, 2022 — The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management must make a stand on requiring offshore wind developers to commit to mitigation and monitoring to safeguard the $5.5 billion U.S. commercial fishing industry, the New Bedford Port Authority says in a detailed, insistent new commentary to the agency.

“BOEM has the clear statutory authority to require certain actions and hold developers to standards as part of” granting permits for offshore wind projects, the Port Authority says in its nine-page Aug. 22 missive to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, signed by port authority interim executive director George Krikorian Jr.

“Any ability left to the wind developers to choose their own procedures will always result in them taking the least expensive path most favorable to them, not commercial fishing.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman